ABC - AgriBioCircular

BACKGROUND

The agricultural sector has seen a transition from an extensive production model to a predominantly intensive mode, underpinned by the need to feed the world's growing population. The process of agricultural intensification, when managed incorrectly, leads to the overexploitation of natural resources and a consequent reduction in the ecosystem services associated with them. The transition to intensive agriculture is also visible in the Alentejo countryside where biodiversity, soil and water quality have been under pressure. As a consequence, traditional crops that are normally well adapted and resilient, such as olive groves, vineyards and cork oak forests, have been weakened and made more susceptible to biotic and abiotic stresses. These negative impacts of agriculture are partly related to the current linear economy model that leads to resource depletion. The circular economy presents a possible alternative with great potential to reverse these effects.

SYNOPSIS

InPP's new ABC-AgriBioCircular Environmental Education project has been approved by the program Environmental Fund, within the framework of the National Strategy for Environmental Education (ENEA 2022). The project aims to implement an educational program in the company's olive groves, vineyards and cork oak forests Reynolds Wine Growers SA, The event will feature activities designed to showcase good examples of the application of circular economy principles to agriculture and how they influence biodiversity. Emphasis will be placed on insects, a group that often has a negative connotation and whose role in ecosystems and our food is undervalued.

The ABC-AgriBioCircular project has as its motto the quote by Confucius, the Chinese thinker and philosopher: “If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children”. In this sense, the project is aimed at young people, students from the Dom Sancho II Secondary School in Elvas and the Escola Superior Agrária de Elvas (ESAE), as well as to the general public.

The project is part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 12 and 15, since the educational program is designed to stimulate and make the young participants aware of their role as an integral part of a community - local and global - that has a power with great impact: to make responsible decisions that guarantee the protection of the planet.

The aim of this project is to inspire a new generation of students to embrace the concepts of sustainable agriculture, biodiversity conservation and scientific innovation, and to sow the seeds of the transition to a circular economy in one of Portugal's most rural inland regions.

OBJECTIVES

1. to inspire students to adopt behaviors that promote more sustainable consumption and production by sharing successful examples of circular economy practices applied to local agriculture.

2. arousing students' curiosity about biodiversity and, in particular, the role of agricultural entomofauna (i.e. insect communities) and communities of endophytic organisms (i.e. microorganisms that live inside plants) as generators of ecosystem services, especially as biocontrol agents against pests and diseases in olive groves, vineyards and cork oak forests.

3. raising awareness among project beneficiaries that the natural capital of olive groves, vineyards and cork oak forests, which are characteristic of the area around Elvas, is quantitatively and temporally dependent on the health, biodiversity and sustainable management of these natural systems.

4.Training higher education students, future agricultural technicians, in experimental analysis methodologies and bioinformatics, making them aware of the clear advantages of the circular economy in terms of reducing waste production and pollution; increasing biodiversity and ensuring long-term ecosystem services.

ACTIVITIES

The project includes the following activities:

1. Organization of opening events , as well closing of the project.

2. design of classroom training and capacity-building actions (March, April, May e June).

3. Visits and hands-on activities to Reynolds Wine Growers in March, May e October.

4 Developing a webGIS platform for accessing citizen science data.

5. preparing the podcast (heading), entitled “The ABC of Circular Agriculture and Biodiversity”, which will be broadcast weekly on Radio Elvas and which aims to publicize the project and subsequent updates, so that the community throughout the region is informed about the educational project.

All RESOURCES (podcasts, videos, presentations and other materials) produced during this project will be available for download.

ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED

FINANCING